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Perceptions |
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What are Perceptions?
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Things you Comprehend Awareness or Understanding Impressions or Insights |
How are Perceptions formed?
Experiences in life (everyday living)
Experiences with people (both excellent and poor)
Knowledge (information: accurate or inaccurate)
Culture and Society (from the church and the world)
Attitudes (friendly or unfriendly...
relating to people or things)
Interests (things people like to do)
From the perceptions of
others
(approval or disapproval)
Consider the image below that describes
how perceptions are formed.
Follow each of the four steps around the circle several times to see
also how perceptions can be strengthened and perpetuated.
The Perceptions Circle
Step # 1 begins with a personal experience
being made. The experience may be
an excellent one, or it may be difficult. It is possible to make an experience
where you find the result wasn't particularly good or bad. You might say
that it
was perhaps an indifferent one.
In
Step # 2 after the experience (and
sometimes even during the time it's being
made), impressions and perceptions of the event begin to be formed. Depending
on what the experience was, and how it was responded to, perceptions will
be
further developed.
In
Steps # 3 and 4 choices are made regarding
the way to respond to these
perceptions, both now, and for the future. If the experience, and the perception
of it, was good, then we might choose to respond in a positive way, which
can
lead to more and better experiences and stronger good impressions. These
can in
turn lead us to choose to repeat the experience and thus perpetuate the
thing we
enjoyed.
If, on the other hand, the experience
made was different, and the impressions and
perceptions of it lead toward the negative side... then the choice as to
whether or
not to go through the experience again is more difficult to consider or
repeat.
Think about this in relation to experiences
that are made with people you know.
If your perceptions of these people are good, then there is a tendency to
want to
be with them and make more good experiences. If, for some reason the experiences
begin to change, and things aren't so nice... perceptions have a way of
changing
too... and the choices made can affect personal encounters being considered
for
the future.
You'll discover later in this study
some ways to break into the negative part of
this perception cycle and create some positive improvements in personal
relationships, but first...
Let's look at some examples of perceptions in action
What you are about to review is only
a small part of a larger picture
relating to people whose lives, experiences, and characters were recorded
in the Bible.It is interesting to note the differences in perception:
Moses (Leader of Israel)
How many people today perceive Moses:
Strong, faithful leader, greatly honored
by God
How Moses perceived himself:
Not believable, eloquent or a good
speaker
Exodus 4: 1, 10
How God perceived Moses:
Able to do a great work with God's
help
Exodus 4: 11 - 15
Jeremiah (Prophet of God)
How people today often perceive Jeremiah:
As a Prophet of God, faithful and true
How Jeremiah perceived himself:
As a child-unable to speak
Jeremiah 1: 6
How God perceived Jeremiah:
Able to do great things with God's
direction
Jeremiah 1: 4, 5, 7-9
Elijah (Prophet of God):
How people today often perceive Elijah:
As a faithful Prophet; greatly honored
by God
How others in his time perceived him:
As the trouble-maker of Israel
1 Kings 18: 17
How Elijah perceived himself:
As the only faithful soul left; worn
out and ready to die
1 Kings 19: 4, 14
How Elijah perceived others:
As uncommitted and unfaithful to God
1 Kings 18: 21, 22
How God perceived Elijah:
In need of some rest, food, strength
and a new commission
1 Kings 19: 7, 15
Mary Magdalene: (An early Christian convert)
How people today might have perceived
Mary:
As an adulteress woman, who had intimate
relations with leaders
of the church; perhaps a prostitute; certainly not someone considered
to have a good character; not someone they would want to be seen
associating with.
How some others perceived her:
As an immoral woman, needing to be
condemned
John 8: 3, 4
How she perceived herself:
As guilty; but saying nothing in her
own defense.
How Jesus perceived her:
Uncondemned; forgiven of her sin; someone
to have compassion on.
See John 8: 10, 11
As has been demonstrated, people perceive
things in different ways. In order
to understand something people select what they want to hear. They usually
don't attend to everything that is spoken. They filter out information and
consider only what seems important. What you think is important may not
be perceived as important by someone else.
Consider a typical experience from childhood in America:
Scene One: Mom calls - but the child
doesn't seem to hear ...
There's no response... The child isn't deaf, or beyond the sound of Mom's
voice, but chooses instead not to respond for one reason or another.
Scene Two: Music from an ice cream truck
offering treats is heard in the
neighborhood - the same child who was deaf to Mom's call a moment ago
would probably hear and respond quickly to the sound of the truck even
if it was several blocks away...
What made the difference? Was it the
sound of the truck's music, or the hope
of receiving a nice treat that was perceived as important?
And what about Mom's voice? Wasn't that
an important one to respond to also?
Yes, but one never knows what Mom might be offering (end of playtime, a
bath,
homework, etc.)... the ice cream truck on the other hand has something that
could
be counted on for sweet enjoyment. Our perceptions of things are important.
In this study there are
four
images
designed
to test your perceptive abilities.
Click on the above link to find them.
How negative perceptions can change
It's important to understand that negative
perceptions which have been formed
in the past are not necessarily destined to remain that way... with effort
and
cooperation the usual results of the cycle can be changed, and in some cases
the cycle can be broken.
The outcome rests with the choices that
are made after the impression and
perception forming process has begun. Because someone has made a difficult
experience, or has a negative perception of the event, doesn't mean that
every
encounter has to be negative.
You can choose to act differently than
might be expected. You can show love
and kindness, when hatred or rejection might be expected. You can try to
look
deeper into the experience and see if it was perceived correctly, or what
might
have been done to change the outcome. There are as many possibilities as
there
are experiences to be made... but the decision regarding how to respond
is yours.
It may sometimes seem, on the surface,
easier just to avoid having to repeat a
difficult encounter with someone, or go through a trying experience again;
but
with a good understanding and attitude, a repeated experience can end up
to one
of life's greatest blessings. Everything depends on your decision and response.
For the Christian, God's ways are always
best, and it's always safe to ask: What
would Jesus do if He were in my place at this moment? How would He respond?
What decision would He make in this situation? It may be difficult, but
it's
usually not hopeless...
"...With God all things
are possible."
Matthew 19: 26
Some ways things are perceived:
How people perceive you... and... How you perceive others...
Good or bad / valuable or worthless
Intelligent or lacking intelligence
Wise or foolish / spiritual or worldly
A friend or a danger
How you perceive yourself :
Valuable, or worthless and unprofitable
With great potential,or empty, with with nothing to share
Strong, or weak and fearful
Able to be saved, or a lost soul
Intelligent, or lacking knowledge and understanding
How you think others perceive you
Usually not the same as you believe
How you perceive God...
Loving and kind, or angry and vengeful
Understanding and patient
Concerned or uninterested, and preoccupied
How God really perceives people:
Differently than they expect.
...For the Lord seeth not
as man seeth;
for man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart.
1 Samuel 16: 7
How people think God perceives them:
Usually in a different way than He really
does if the impression
people have of themselves, or their impression of Him,
isn't what it needs to be.
Do you think is it important to study about perceptions ? Why?
Sometimes the ways in which we perceive
things causes problems.
What exactly is the problem ? Some say people are the problem.
In reality, people are
not the problem;
people have problems
The ways you perceive yourself, others,
God,
and the world around you, affect your daily life
in a variety of ways:
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How you live ...a productive or unproductive life |
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How you choose to work ...actively or inactively |
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How you interact with others around
you ...socially or unsocially; cooperatively or uncooperatively |
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How you mature ... with balance or imbalanced |
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How you generally progress in life ...moving ahead, or falling behind |
Standing still usually
means
going backwards...
Let's move forward!
We hope you have enjoyed and gained
something from this study on
perceptions and that it has helped your understanding in this area.
Could you take time to contact
us and share how these studies
have
contributed to your Christian experience, and efforts in missionary
service?
Your feedback will assist in developing our website further to help
meet the needs of those we serve. Thanks.
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